Police officers conducting a search at Keith Schembri's Mellieħa residence in November 2019 only collected electronic devices pointed out by Schembri himself, despite other phones being visible inside the house, a jury hearing the trial of Yorgen Fenech was told on Monday.

Scene of Crime Officer Michelle Camilleri testified that officers were instructed by lead investigating officer Keith Arnaud to seize only the devices indicated by Schembri, who served as chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister. The search was conducted at Schembri's residence in Santa Marija Estate on November 26, 2019.

Yorgen Fenech, a businessman, is pleading not guilty to two principal charges: complicity in the wilful homicide of Daphne Caruana Galizia and criminal association to commit the murder. 

Caruana Galizia, a columnist with The Malta Independent, was killed in a car bomb on 16 October, 2017.

Five men have already been convicted in connection with Caruana Galizia's assassination. Vince Muscat admitted his role in the murder in 2021 and was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. Alfred and George Degiorgio each received 40-year prison sentences after pleading guilty in 2022, while Robert Agius and Jamie Vella were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2025 for supplying the bomb used in the attack.

In her testimony, Camilleri said officers had been deployed to recover electronic devices from Schembri's residence, where the former chief of staff was present together with his wife, one of his children and Labour activist Neville Gafa, apart from two lawyers.

She told prosecutor Godwin Cini that the devices collected included two laptops belonging to Schembri's daughters and an iPad found on Schembri's bedside table.

Photographs of the property and the devices seized were exhibited in court.

However, under cross-examination by defence lawyer Giannella de Marco, Camilleri confirmed that the search differed significantly from standard police procedure.

Asked whether officers would normally know the purpose of a search before arriving at a residence, Camilleri replied that they usually would.

She also agreed that, unlike the norm, officers travelled to the property in unmarked vans rather than official police vehicles.

De Marco further pointed out that lawyers do not normally accompany suspects during house searches. Camilleri agreed that this was also unusual.

Questioned about why the officers limited themselves to certain devices, Camilleri said they had initially been confused and sought clarification.

Camilleri's colleague called Arnaud for proper instructions because "we were confused. He told us to only take those items indicated to us by Schembri," she testified.

De Marco then listed the items identified by Schembri, including his children's laptops, an old Dell laptop found in the living room and an Asus tablet which allegedly did not function without its charger.

Camilleri confirmed that those were the items seized.

The defence then referred the witness to photographs showing mobile phones visible on a table inside the residence.

Asked why those phones had not been collected, Camilleri replied: "We didn't pick them up because they were not indicated to us by Schembri."

Forensic expert Mario Azzopardi, a veteran of 19 years, who was - at the time - a scene of crime officer, corroborated Camilleri's account of the search.

He recalled that, at 1:20pm on November 26 2019, Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud instructed him to conduct a house search of Keith Schembri's Mellieħa residence.

As his colleague previously testified, Azzopardi confirmed that Keith Schembri was on site during the search, along with his lawyers, his mother, his father, his eldest daughter, his wife, and Neville Gafa.

Officers asked for instructions on how to carry out the search. Late police officer Alex Taliana explained that Arnaud's orders were to seize any devices indicated to them by Schembri.

Azzopardi details the exact items seized, being a Dell laptop found in the living room, two MacBook Airs belonging to his children, and an Asus tablet found on the bedside table of the bedroom.

Azzopardi also recalled an unmarked nine-seater van used to transport everyone involved to the search of Keith Schembri's residence.

The prosecution questioned the reasoning behind choosing an unmarked police vehicle for the search. "I assume not to alert the media," Azzopardi said.

Under cross-examination, de Marco asked the witness about his testimony to the inquiring magistrate, which she quoted: "We did not conduct any searches; we just took what Schembri told us to take."

"Is this how scene of crime officers usually conduct a search?," de Marco asked the witness. "No, we don't do it like that," Azzopardi replied.

He confirmed that the two mobile phones shown in a photo to Camilleri earlier in the day had not been seized, and was also asked whether a suspect's lawyer had ever accompanied him to a house search.

"That was the only time in my 19 years [of working in the police force] that lawyers have ever accompanied us to a house search.," Azzopardi said.

"Do we agree that you only took those devices that were indicated to you by Schembri?," de Marco asked.

"Yes, that's correct. He would point at the items and we would take those," Azzopardi replied.

The jury asked Azzopardi how he felt after the search and whether he had spoken to any of his colleagues about it, but the court said that Azzopardi's opinion could not be used as evidence, and Azzopardi said that he does not recall whether he had spoken to his colleagues about the search and the circumstances they had faced.

Earlier in the sitting, Europol forensic experts continued giving evidence about the extraction and examination of electronic devices seized during the investigation.

Former Europol computer forensic expert Israel Cordillo Torres told jurors his role was limited to extracting available data from devices recovered from Fenech's various properties.

He said seven devices had been seized from Office 4 on Level 3 of the Portomaso Business Centre in St Julian's.

Another former Europol forensic examiner, Dennis Petrou, described "Operation Blue Elephant Malta, Portomaso Business Towers", during which investigators recovered a laptop, hard drive, Bluetooth device and laptop charger from offices at Portomaso.

Petrou confirmed that he personally extracted data from one of the laptops, whose keyboard had been found damaged.

The court also heard evidence about forensic reports concerning devices seized from Portomaso Marina and the Portomaso Business Tower.

One report noted that a mobile phone had been restored to factory settings before investigators examined it.

Jurors asked whether experts could determine whether the device had previously contained data before being reset.

The presiding judge intervened, stating that the court had to assess the evidence available rather than speculate about technological capabilities.

The forensic expert testified that while it was entirely possible the phone had contained data before being restored to factory settings, there was no way for experts to establish what information, if any, had been erased.

Earlier, court assistant registrar Stephania Calafato Testa testified about an encrypted pen drive received from Eurojust in 2021 through an Italian prosecutor. After investigators were initially unable to access its contents, the device was returned to Eurojust, assigned a new password and sent back to Malta.

Calafato Testa later confirmed that the pen drive contained material related to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, including conversations and documents received from the Italian authorities.

Europol Senior Specialist Forensic Examiner Giuseppe Totaro, who was a digital forensic expert at the time of the case, described how he was tasked to undergo forensic extraction from the seized devices using a secure Europol system. He carried out the extractions in Malta.

He explains that several devices were seized on 20 November 2019 from the cabin cruiser named Gio found in the Portomaso marina, and the content extracted from these devices were stored in three sets of hard-drives, which were then delivered to Maltese courts.

DNA expert Marisa Cassar, who has been a court expert since 2007, said that she was tasked to confirm the identity of the victim's corpse, and that she had done so by comparing the DNA of the body to that of Daphne Caruana Galizia's son Paul. 

Another report she penned featured the findings of the DNA evidence on the cigarette butts retrieved from the Bidnija lookout spot, and further reports on blood samples, car parts, and clothes.

DNA findings of the samples taken include the names of Daphne Caruana Galizia as well as Alfred and George Degiorgio.

The trial will resume on Tuesday.